IN
the previous administration, the president committed a sin by inclusion; in the
present dispensation, the evil act is in the exclusion.

What
is really a committal of artists and thinkers—an arduous arena where those who
believe in the potency of culture and its power to gift us with identities and
political persuasions, tangle in theories and compete in their abilities to
assess achievements and social impact of geniuses—is reduced finally into a
management transaction. Gone is the rigor of thinking about how arts and
artists form nations. Gone is the rage that borders on the divine when great
minds, or at least those who support the work of artists from all over the
land, struggle to discover what is great about the dance, the music, the
theater, the literature, and the new technologies that fuse aesthetics with
science along with the histories, the fashion and the crafts of an
island-republic. Gone in fact is any kind of struggle. Gone is the majesty of
the many minds that fought not out of violence but out of love for a country in
search of its own artists. In their places is a multitude of tasks and
assignments, cunningly cold, to slice off a slab of agreed-upon names. Without
rancor. In their places are men who believe it is facile to remove or add a
name or names. Without thinking.

Think
of this scenario: the list of the artists arrives in the palace. Somebody must
have held it in his hand. That man, or the King’s Men, would have contemplated
the list. Perhaps for a week. Or weeks. But the list is placed on a table and
stays there for months and months. Was someone committing them to memory? Did a
name bother them?

If
this country were in the temperate zone, the list would have seen trees lose
their leaves, and trees regain those leaves and live again. If this country
were an infant, the list would have witnessed the country crawl and attempt to
stand. Time, the faithful witness to histories, becomes an absurd mute
observer. Absurdity becomes the order of the day.

Then,
the day finally comes that the celebratory list is announced. Almost near
midnight. The announcement is done by the Communications Secretary. The
tradition is for the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the
Cultural Center of the Philippines to jointly announce the list. This was not
to be so.

The
name of Nora Villamayor, known around these parts and beyond as Nora Aunor, was
struck out of the list. Again, logic played tricks with our understanding: the
palace spokesperson would not know who was removed from the list because they
just received the list. Indeed, who can debate with that? Another spokesperson
also had no explanation because she was not present in the deliberation. So,
there was a deliberation? Were NCCA and CCP part of this new deliberation.

A
letter from the Chairman of the NCCA, Prof. Felipe de Leon, asks for an
explanation from the Palace. Outside of Nora Aunor’s body of work, the NCCA,
according to De Leon, is not interested in anything about Nora Aunor. De Leon,
commenting on the exclusion of Aunor, laments the loss of another artistic role
model. De Leon calls for reforms that will shield the selection of National
Artist from politics.

Dr.
Bienvenido Lumbera, National Artist for Literature, states: “The Office of the
President owes the CCP and the NCCA an explanation for the insulting disregard
of the choice for Nora Aunor as National Artist.”

At
the center of the loss and lament is Nora Aunor.

She
cannot be denied the title of National Artist because she has always been there
at the edge, in the gaps, in the interstices of this culture.

When
no mainstream producer dared to question the war we fought back in the 1940s,
she presented to us her Rosario, caught in the calumnious triangle of love and
deceit and life. Her Rosario is not a Filipino woman to love but one to
question or even to malign. At a young age, Aunor knew how to summon the
political cinema. At a young age, she produced a piece of cinema that
interrogated the nation and its past.

Then
when the American bases were the boon of this nation, she conjured Corazon, a
nurse who dreamt of the American dream. But American soldiers guarding the
spaces around one base mistook Corazon’s brother for a wild pig, or so the
American military brass claimed. Shrouded in veil but bristling with wrath,
Corazon delivered the lines that made us rethink about Americans. It would take
the natural agitation from a sleeping volcano, and the strong political will
from the political men of the mother of this president, to push the American
bases out of Philippine soil. It cannot be denied, however, that Aunor’s
Corazon strong sentry over the coffin of her brother, and the grin that
appeared on that face when at last she was the only one who could save a young
American in an accident, made us think where we were in terms of the US bases
and imperialism. Nora’s films always made its audiences think and rethink about
change.

Then
came Himala, a film about miracles. If Filipinos were still unaware of the
manipulations of the institutional church, Nora’s Elsa—delivering an
impassioned speech about the social origins of saints and miracles and
apparitions—delivered us to our liberation from an imposed religion. Some of us
came back to the fold and some stayed at the peripheries, but our notion of
religion had been altogether changed. It has been said Aunor was not directed
in this film; she directed herself while the other actors used her as pivot.
Aunor in depicting the abuses and mysteries of religion could not be faulted by
the big church because the film is itself a commentary on both the state and a
religion that was becoming that of the state. Amid the architecture of guilt
and gods, Nora stood as the condensation of all of those questions we needed to
ask from God but which we always ended up asking from priests and pastors.

Nora
would incarnate role after unforgettable role: the activist who falls in love;
a mother who gives birth in the zoo, beast and motherhood in a trenchant tango;
another mother who dies for a movement for there is no other way.

Nora
was Flor Contemplacion. The film which severed the old ties between the Philippines
and Singapore was one of the heralded comebacks of Nora Aunor. She was selected
to play Flor because the tragic domestic helper was a Noranian. Again,
absurdity became the order of the day. At the end of that day, Flor and Nora
became interchangeable, as men and women coming from the Philippines became
interchangeable with all the other workers of the world, as their workplaces
and the people they worked for and the children they cared for became
interchangeable with their families and their own children.

On
stage and on screen, Nora has portrayed characters who struggle so they could
triumph. Sometimes, the character does not win the battle; sometimes, the
character steps outside the stage to address a crowd. These characters have
always been portrayed with the realism Nora Aunor was and is noted for, an
acting style that has influenced many generations of actors. Like Aunor’s
complexion, her approach to performance has changed our ways of looking at
cinematic life.

Acclaimed
here and abroad, her films lauded in practically all the significant
international festivals, Nora’s collection of characters have always remained
in the periphery. Even when her role is that of a lawyer, the marginal would
win over. For that is where the vitality of this actor is situated—at the edge,
at the margins where most of us find ourselves every day.

Banish
these characters and you have a vacuum in the collective memory of Filipinos of
all genders.

To
not honor these films is to not honor the histories of this nation where the
dominant tale is important and those in the ruptures, in the crevasses matter
for action and change.

One
cannot deny the presence of Nora Aunor—not even the president of the land, or
especially the president of the land whose tenure is tethered to the next
election and not to the next generation. One cannot also proclaim the absence
of Nora Aunor, for her works, her voice, her gestures are all over the land, in
territories violated, as many of Aunor’s characters are.

One
cannot deny the artistry of this actor, for art—Nora Aunor’s art—is not
shackled by anyone who abrogates upon himself or herself the duty of naming
that who should stand for us. Given that, one cannot confer upon Nora Aunor the
name that is not originating in the ministerial body of a leader who is
suggested to be burdened by arts and culture.

In
Nora Aunor and her art is a piece of this nation. Remove Nora Aunor and her
artistry and you will be staring at a gap. Remove Nora Aunor and all the other
National Artists, for the so-called Presidential Prerogative allows that,
according to a few unenlightened ones, and you are looking at a massive
collective memory gap.

Remove
the power of any president to remove one or all in the list submitted by the
National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Cultural Center of the
Philippines, and you have a healthy democracy, a proud nation where arts
and culture have as much value—and burden, if you wish—as the questions on
sovereignty and human rights are. In fact the issue of arts and culture are
equal to the issue of sovereignty and human rights. And the artists are equal
to politicians who use their PDAF for their own vision of culture and arts, and
the technocrats who man film festivals as if these festivals are traffic rules
and regulations.

As
for Nora Aunor and all the other National Artists, their names will be part of
the more pleasant and gratifying chapters in our rewritten history. As for the
politicians and presidents, their histories will be about repeated follies and
the chapters about them will be repugnant. I do not think we will look for
identities and a sense of nationhood ever in our leaders but I believe arts and
cultures will be, however contentious, our wellspring of pride and person as
Filipinos.

As
for Nora Aunor still, the chapter on her—National Artist or no National
Artist—will be gilded, a bountiful golden balanghay ferrying us to identities
after identities. As for those presidential spokesperson and other chairpersons
and people who have no comment on things when those things do not impact their
comfort zones, they will not even merit footnotes in our heritage. And even if
they do, I doubt if people will bother to check those notes at the margins.

Such
is the power of cinema. Such is the power of Nora Aunor. But in the end, it
takes one person—or a hallway of critics—to strike out the name of Nora Aunor,
with no desire for explanation. And we are vastly, violently poorer for it.

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PROUD TO BE FILIPINO! NORA AUNOR FOR NATIONAL ARTIST!

SUPERSTAR NORA AUNOR

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TRANSLATION

NORA AUNOR IS UP's GAWAD PLARIDEL AWARDEE

This portrait will be displayed at the Gawad Plaridel Gallery at the Lobby of U.P. College of Mass Communication.

KABISERA

"This socio-political drama unfolds as a quietly powerful and gripping story of a tightly-knit family coming to grips with abusive elements of Philippine society, specifically the hooded perpetrators of extra-judicial killings. Taking issue with human rights violations doesn’t only serve the film as fine advocacy for its relevant and timely choice of theme, but also subtly reveals various other concerns imbedded in the thread of conflicts. A sure, steady directorial hand, conscientious script and effective cinematography are matched by the lead actors’ faultless performances. This taut and tragic drama will disturb viewers with its stark chronology of what confronts us daily in an often oppressive urban milieu, with the final imagery delivering a subtle footnote to our awareness of the proper place of vaunted justice in our society."

TATLONG TAONG WALANG DIYOS

The digitally restored and remastered TATLONG TAONG WALANG DIYOS will premiere at Cinema One Originals this November 15 at Trinoma! Stay tuned for announcements on how to get a chance to watch the premiere of this 1976 classic.

HINULID

Synopsis: A woman returns to the village of Kagbunga in the Bikol region carrying the ashes of her only son via the old train that circles her universe like the tandayag, the primordial serpent. In a filial act of mourning, she will reckon and reconcile the thin line that exists between tragedy and transcendence and prove and that even the most broken life can be restored to its moments.

COVER FOR JUNE 2015

Nora Aunor, the first Filipino thespian to grace our cover.

TAKLUB (TRAP)

Brillante Ma. Mendoza’s latest work, “Taklub,” will make its Philippine premiere as the opening movie of the French Film Festival in Manila on June 3. An entry in the Un Certain Regard section of the recent Cannes Film Festival, it won the Ecumenical Jury Prize-Commendation (Special Mention) last Saturday. The acclaimed film, which top-bills Nora Aunor as a survivor of Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” will be shown at Greenbelt 3 in Makati.

CINEMALAYA X BEST ACTRESS

CONGRATULATIONS MS. NORA AUNOR!

IN PHILIPPINE CINEMAS: SEPT. 24

Some memories do come back to haunt you. Mara Fabre (Nora Aunor) is diagnosed with early onset dementia, In the hope of jogging her memory, she is brought by her cousin's family to her hometown in a remote island in Batanes. But instead of just recalling familiar places and faces, she then starts seeing visions no one else sees. It is only her young niece, Rachel (Jasmine Curtis Smith), who begins to wonder if what Mara sees is really just a by-product of her illness or if there really is something haunting her from the past.

FILM IN 2013

ANG KUWENTO NI MABUTI

FILM IN 2012

THY WOMB Fan Page

The year's most prestigious cinematic showcase: the story of the Bajau sea gypsies of Tawi-Tawi. Directed by Brillante Ma. Mendoza. Starring Nora Aunor and Bembol Roco.

THY WOMB BLOGSITE

SELECTED REVIEWS AND ARTICLES ON TE MOST INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED FILIPINO FILM [2012]

THY WOMB: THY FILM

Revealing the rigors of unconditional love, the nature of sacrifice is dramatized through the dilemma of a Bajau midwife as she copes with the irony of her own infertility amid the deprivations of her gypsy community in Tawi-Tawi. A saga of island life stuck between the devil of passion and the deep blue sea of tradition.

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NORA AUNOR: ICON of Philippine Cinema

NORA AUNOR: THE PHILIPPINE SUPERSTAR

Nora Aunor is a critically acclaimed Filipino Actress, Recording Artist and Film Producer. Aunor has also topbilled several stage plays, television shows and concerts.

NORA AUNOR DISCOGRAPHY

THE ARTISTRY OF NORA AUNOR

This page promotes the world-class artistry of Philippine actress Nora Aunor and how her life and her works influence art and culture in the Philippines.

SONGS OF NORA AUNOR

MY ONLY SUPERSTAR

Nora Aunor's Songs, Images and Movies

SI NORA AUNOR SA MGA NORANIAN

This unique anthology in Filipino is composed of 49 essays by a varied cross-section of Noranians on their memories of the cultural icon that is Nora Aunor and their confessions of the compelling reasons that drove them to become diehard fans.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ATE GUY!!!

MAY 21, 2013

NORANIANA COLLECTION

NORANIANA - n. refers to book and nonbook materials related to Nora Aunor, in whole or in part, produced in or outside the Philippines, by Filipinos or non-Filipinos, in any of the Philippine Languages or in a foreign language

SA PUSO NG HIMALA

HIMALA COFFEE TABLE BOOK. Available Now! Get your copy!

HIMALA [Restored Version]

Now Available! Grab your copy!

HIMALA sa Buhangin

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THY WOMB: TWITTER

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SUPERSTARSTRUCK

Noranians are people smitten by a talent extraordinaire: Ms. Nora Aunor, a singer with golden voice, world-class film artist, cultural icon, living legend—the ultimate multimedia Superstar of the Philippine entertainment industry. Noranians are SUPERSTARstruck.